


Memory Lane

by Cliffbreaker



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, David represses things, F/M, M/M, Max never met Jasper on Spooky Island, Possible David/Gwen, Suicide, greif, this sounds deep and sad but it’s not that bad I swear-
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2018-06-29
Packaged: 2019-02-24 13:57:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 4,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13215213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cliffbreaker/pseuds/Cliffbreaker
Summary: When Max discovers a bunch of cameras with footage of a young David on it, he begins to question the honesty of his councillor and uncovers the truth behind his constant sunny disposition, encountering the beginning of his long road to recovering from his own mental illnesses with the help of someone whose seen it all before.





	1. Chapter One, Buried In A Box Somewhere

Memories are sweet,

Though some are sour so,

I buried them.

~~~

Crackling grass crunches under Max’s feet as he walked leisurely. It was that time of summer once again. When it was no longer beautiful, just hot and full of dry, dying plants. Another reason why summer sucked. Though, it’s not like he even needed more to add to the list. _Mind melting heat, Complete boredom, and now shitty dying grass...I digress._

Max let his mind wander as he approached his destination; the Quartermaster’s Shed. He bust open the doors and coughed up the cloud of dust that billowed around him, one arm up, shielding his face. Blue-green eyes peered into the darkness, wondering what mysteries hid inside the depths of this shed. He took a step into the dusty room when the door slammed shut behind him, loudly, and he jumped high in the air with an embarrassingly loud yelp.

Now he covered his mouth and ignored his burning cheeks and Max charged forward through the mess. He wasn’t sure what exactly he was here for, just that it had to be something to prank the councillors with. Payback for making him stay behind yesterday to clean up the mess he made in the mess-hall. (How ironic.) It wasn’t even his fault though! Nikki was _totally_ asking for him to throw the false mashed potato at her like a flaming boulder.

Lost in thought about the objects of interest that surrounded his vision, he forgot to pay attention to the floor below his feet. Suddenly the ground slipped out from under him. Max’s face was only saved by his palms, which now burned a little as he scooted to sit on his backside and glare at the offending object. It was a cardboard box leaned against others, all similarly duct-taped vigorously, and with as much as could be applied.

Leaning forward to get a better look at it, Max gazed skeptically at the top. Written in David’s recognisable handwriting with a red sharpie was the words ‘ ** _Do Not Open!_** ’ Scrawled across with lots of x’s scribbled everywhere, and a date by the side. **12/26/03**. So of _course_ Max opened it. Who _wouldn’t_? Inside the heavily taped shut box was a small metal rectangle. From the lens on one side and screen on the other, it appeared to be a camera. An old, beat up one at that, but still functional when he turned it on.

It flickered to life and displayed the loud loading screen for a moment before switching to an open lens aimed at his knees. Obviously it had been used before, so he checked the gallery for the last thing taken on the device. What he saw didn’t surprise him, because it was just a candid shot of a young, dirty-blond boy sat with his skateboard behind him as he faced away, a can of coke sat on top of the board. It wasn’t a very good shot, obviously done with care but still not very flattering. Still, it made Max stop a minute and take it in.

Stuff like this had always fascinated the young boy. He was looking at a moment captured in time of a stranger that could be millions of miles away today, and all Max would ever know of them was what they looked like in 2003, on a beach boardwalk. Was this someone the owner of the camera still talks to? Did they ever even know the person themselves? Would Max ever meet this person but never know it was them? He shifted his weight to rest an elbow on his knee and lean his cheek into his fist and scrolled to the next item in the gallery.

 


	2. 1. Buried In A Box Somewhere

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What’s in that first video?

It was a video. The opening shot started out with the camera man aimed at his bare feet on a skateboard. One that he was managing incredibly poorly. The view shot up to the face of the same boy from the first picture, laughing at the camera man. It zoomed out to show them holding hands as they moved slowly and unsteadily down a road by the side of a beach.

“Stop laughing at me, man!” The cameraman whined. Blond Boy (Max dubbed him this temporarily) just laughed harder as the commotion caused the camera man to wobble on the board. “It’s not _my_ fault you suck major ass at skateboarding, dude!” He grinned brightly at Cameraman. The camera pointed to their intertwined hands and zoomed in on a pale hand flipping Blond Boy the bird. A gasp was heard off shot, and Cameraman laughed annoyingly loud. _And annoyingly familiar..._ Max thought.

When the camera aimed back up at Blond Boy, he was pouting. “Hey! I’m helping you out here kid, and you’re just bein’ _mean!_ ” He drawled, although a smirk was definitely seeping into the corners of his mouth. “Yeah, whatever floats your boat dude, but I’m only a _year_ younger than you!” He said defensively. Blond Boy faked a look of astonishment and pulled his hand free from Cameraman’s with a quick shout of protest from the other, and placed it over his chest in mock surprise.

“I know! So _young_!” He cried. But it was the wrong time to let go of his companion, and the Cameraman toppled over off his skateboard and sent the camera flying to the ground with a loud thud, tumbling on its side. All that could be heard was the sound of a boy yelping and hitting concrete with a sickening slap, and a skateboard shooting off. Blond Boy yelled out a name that raised sirens in Max’s head.

“Davey!” He cried, earning a groan in response. The skateboard came rolling into the camera in that moment and flipped the camera so it faced a boy with a head of fiery red curls groaning on the floor, and Blond Boy kneeled over him with a hand set on the ground above his head. Worry filled his eyes, “Seriously, Davey are you _okay_?!” He warbled.

“Jasper?” The ginger whispered dramatically. Yes!?” Blond B- Jasper, gasped, leaning in closer.

“ _Fuck you_.” Davey grunted, grabbing the collar of Jasper’s shirt and yanking him to the ground beside him as he shrieked.


	3. 1. Buried In A Box Somewhere

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max and friends discover another camera.

So far Max had watched fifteen videos. By now the sun in the shack had disappeared, and now some of the nicknacks of questionable origin and legality were bathed in moonlight. Max rubbed his tired eyes and flipped out of the gallery, using the screen as his flashlight through the dark.

Not very long into the gallery Max had started to piece together information. Now he knew who owned this camera at one point; David. But it didn’t seem to fit all together just right. Max had been searching for a reason for David to be so positive his whole time at camp. He’d even tried deconstructing the man to make him snap and stop acting like Polly Positive twenty-four-seven. And in a way, he kind of got what he wanted.

But it was only one piece of a puzzle, in reality. Sure the camera probably has footage of what made David lose a couple thousand brain cells and become Steve Rodgers, but it wouldn’t tell him how to fix that. And it wouldn’t tell him why this David was so far removed from who he is now. Sure, people mature, but they don’t do a complete one-eighty and dive straight into Bob Ross and cross-country marathons after being the literal definition of a hothead. (Get it. Red hair?)

Max sighed and shook his head, _Whatever. It’s good enough. It’ll probably get a kick out of Nikki and Neil._ He thought, striding forward into the moonlit tent area.

~~~~~

Max sneered, pulling the camera back. “Nikki, hands off! I’m tryna show both of you, and you’re fucking in the way of Neil!” He growled. The teal haired girl just shrugged and scooted backwards, still grinning excitedly.

“And you’re sure that’s David? Not some twin?” Neil rubbed his chin with a frown on his face. “One hundred percent,” Max nodded. “But, I don’t know how to use it as blackmail.” He admitted, staring at the small device with a raised eyebrow, almost like it was a distasteful child in his path. Neil straightened his back, “Keep having a look through the videos and you might find something.”

Max nodded in acknowledgement and shoved the camera in his backpack before hopping into his cot. His skinny tentmate swiftly jumped into his own cot. “Night, guys.” The two boys said in unison. Nikki just smiled and crawled under Max’s cot, reaching out from the depths to switch off the lamp beside the cot.

“Wait, Max, where did you find the camera?” Neil whispered into the darkness of the tent. “The Quartermaster’s shed.” Max whispered back. He heard Neil make a thoughtful noise into the silence.

“Tomorrow I wanna check for more cameras.” Neil spoke quietly. Even though he knew Neil couldn’t see it in the darkness, Max nodded, “‘Kay.” Max whispered, shutting his tired eyes for the night.

~~~~~~~~

Small hands rummaged through the Quartermaster’s shed as Max stared around with confusion. “Where was it? I swear it was right here...” He grumbled. Nikki sniffed close to the ground as though she were a bloodhound, hitting objects with her forehead every so often. She almost knocked over a glass jar at one point.

Eventually someone shouted “I think I found it!” From the depths of the shed. Max and Nikki looked up to see Neil holding a small box extremely similar looking to the one Max had tripped over yesterday. The noiret eagerly approached his friend. “You sure?” Max replied, raising one eyebrow. His curly haired friend nodded, mouth forming a soft line. Neil thrust the box toward Max, letting him tear open the tape.

This time the camera was from two years after the first one, 2005 now. It was also beaten up, and when he turned it on the display glitched a little. Max smiled a little and let his arm fall to his side with the chunky silver camera in his grasp. “Alright, lets go back. David’s bound to notice we’re not with the others soon, if not already.” His two companions followed Max out of the shed and into the bright forest.


	4. 1 Buried In A Box Somewhere

  
There weren’t many videos on the first camera, according the Neil. But that didn’t mean the contents weren’t still interesting. Most of the pictures were of David and Jasper out doing things. They often went to some sort of arcade together and dicked around, switching between fucking with staff, or fucking with each-other. The time they didn’t spend in the arcade was all open range.

In one video they found a puppy, one that may have been the same dog in one of David’s “scary” stories. They taught that dog how to run next to the skateboard as one rode. Until another video, where David told the camera while he strode around what appeared to be an empty school with the lights off, that the puppy’s owner had asked them to return her. Oh, the names he called that poor neighbour.

However different each item in the gallery was, they all had one thing in common; Jasper. Each and every clip or photo. Jasper smiling at the camera, Jasper doing a comical pose, Jasper unaware of the camera as he did something mundane. Max said it was creepy, Nikki called it cute. All the same, it told them more about this ‘Jasper’ guy than the one actually taking the pictures.

Max took president over the second camera. It was obvious that David was around their age when he shot this, and probably didn’t know much about cameras, because he often pointed the lens at the ground for long periods of time before realise his mistake finally. It was actually pretty funny, the kind of scenarios it created. If the camera was pointed away, you could still hear the audio, so you couldn’t see what was happening and had to guess what was going on based on the audio.

“No! Hey! Stop it, dumbass!” Someone yelled as a sound like rocks hitting metal one by one carried out out of the cameras view. “I said stop it! Turn the freaking machine off!” The boy screeched, most likely David. Someone else who was probably Jasper laughed maniacally from a little further to the left. Eventually the machine must have run out of objects to throw, because Jasper groaned and David gave a triumphant laugh before the sound of shoes slapping on concrete towards the source of Jasper’s voice came through the speakers.

Max laughed a little to himself as he exited the video, realising that was the last one. “Interesting.” He spoke aloud to no one in particular. _Interesting in a mundane way._ He thought to himself.

Neil scratched his head, “I mean, it was funny but nothing really happened. Why don’t we go back and look for another camera?” He inquired. Max nodded, rubbing his chin a little in thought. “Yeah, weren’t there more boxes like this?” He met Neil’s eyes again. His friend nodded mutely.

“Then lets go.” Max spoke with finality, marching off, letting his companions follow him close behind.

  
Soon they were holding another red labelled box, now the date reading 2008, and the same day as the others. Maybe they were birthday presents? Anyways, Max tore it open with some struggle using his weak arms. Sure enough, another camera lay inside.

But it wasn’t as beat up as the others. In fact, it seemed to be in pristine condition. And also a magenta colour. “Huh.” Max said plainly, plucking it out of the box. He switched it on and checked the gallery as Neil set the box down and he and Nikki crowded to Max’s side.


	5. 1 Buried In A Box Somewhere

Usually it was quiet in the councillor’s cabin. So why did the quiet feel so oppressive all of a sudden? Gwen was kept from her sleep for the first time in a while since working at this camp. She stared at the bleak, wooden ceiling with growing restlessness. _Maybe I’m just coming up to my period..._ she reassured herself.

Instead of fooling herself into thinking she could fall to sleep like this, Gwen slipped out from under the covers with her phone from her bedside table and let her feet meet the cool, wooden floor. She grimaced as the floorboards creaked under her first few steps. Her gaze traveled to where her co-councillor usually slept, but he didn’t seem to have been roused by her noise.

Gwen gave a little half sigh and kept softly walking on through the cabin. Eventually she clicked open the door softly and slowly but it still creaked a little. Damn these old metal joints! She cursed the loudness of the cabin and looked toward’s David’s bed again, but he still seemed unaffected. Hell, he even seemed lifeless. The sheets unmoving. Wow, that was a morbid thought...

Gwen snapped back to her current situation. She closed her mouth and entered the living room of the cabin. Maybe she could grab a snack and watch some cartoons about an anime girl called Ruby. However as she moved toward the kitchen, her view of the sliding screen door wasn’t obstructed by the old chair and sofa.

Below the twinkling stars splayed out over a royal blue sky, a big pile of blankets lay on the hardwood floor. Gwen almost jumped a little when it became apparent that someone was inside the bundle. Her heart raced for a moment thinking “ _Pervert? Killer? Burglar?_ “ Until it occurred to her how tall the bundle was.

“David?” She spoke softly. The bundle itself jumped a little. She approached him slowly and sat down beside him on the cool hardwood floor, the weak boards creaking beneath her weight. He seemed to shrink away from her, curling in on himself into the blankets. Gwen was confounded that, for the first time since meeting him, David didn’t spring toward her with a gleeful smile on his face.

So instead she came to him. She placed a brown hand on the top of the bundle and pulled down gently. “David? Are you okay?” Gwen whispered. When the hood of one thick, fuzzy blanket fell, his usually bouncy hair was splayed out messily. She almost laughed until she saw his sheepishly tired grin.

David didn’t meet her gaze when he told her simply that he was fine. His tone seemed to be going for kind, but he was obviously too tired to put any effort into it. Almost seeming ashamed, he rubbed the back of his neck and looked at his feet, which were criss-crossed. This action caused some ginger hair to fall into his face. She really wanted to brush that away so she could see his side profile better.

“Why are you up, Gwen?” He whispered. The woman in question raised an eyebrow. “I should ask you the same question.” She whispered back. He chuckled softly at that. “Can’t beat you on that...” The tired man admitted. Leaning back on her palms, Gwen smiled with self-satisfaction.

“So why are you up then?” She inquired, staring at the shaved part of David’s hair as he stared at his feet and played with some blanket hem on the floor. “Would you believe me if I said stargazing?” He spoke in a tone a little louder than whispering. Gwen had honestly never heard him that quiet before. She shook her head softly. “Usually yeah. But right now you don’t really look like you’re in the stargazing mood.” Gwen commented. “Which isn’t like you...” She added thoughtfully.

“That obvious?” He spoke lightly. But she knew firsthand that tone. So she tried again. “What’s keeping you up?” Bluntness dripped from her voice. David looked over his shoulder with an expression he rarely gave. Unease.

“Um.” He started. Suddenly he broke eye contact with her, opting to stare at his shoes as he struggled to find the words. It dawned on her then. Was he _embarrassed?_ She scooter forward and angled down to see his face.

Sure enough, his mouth was slightly open and cheeks became darker in the moonlight. “What are you embarrassed about?” Gwen blurted. David met her eyes, as if he suddenly realised she was there. For a moment he seemed calm. Until the uncertainty seemed to wash over him again.

He sighed. “Sleep depravation isn’t new to me. I have insomnia. I just forgot my meds.” The ginger ran a large, calloused but pretty hand across his freckles face. Exhaustion seeped into his voice. Gwen pursed her lips a little in surprise but kept her mouth shut. Almost like she was afraid of scaring him into closing up, she kept quiet until he began to speak again.

“I can handle it usually, but...not every night is like this.” He admitted sombrely She searched his eyes but she couldn’t meet them when he stared at his socks. A slender finger of hers rubbed at the wood where it lay behind her. Gwen’s mouth opened slowly, slightly, as if she had something to say. But it never came out. Everything she wanted to say was probably not what David wanted to, or **needed** to hear right now. Instead, she placed her brown hand over his bandaged one.

He was quiet as she caught him stare at their hands for a moment in surprise. Gwen kept it to herself, but for a moment when the moon was in David’s eyes, they really looked like Max’s. The dark circles under them were like Max’s eyes too.


	6. Chapter Two, The Sleepless Wonder

No sir I can’t sleep

Dreams wait stealthily to keep

Torment in the deep.

~~~ 

Max burst into the mess hall, his eyes wide open with fear as he screamed “BEAVERS!”. Through the door, beavers slid past the fragile and thin boy, the sheer force of them eventually ripping him from where he was clutching the doorway with all his strength. Something he didn’t have much of.

Campers screamed as loud as they could and jumped onto tables as beavers flooded the cafeteria. Nikki came in on the back of a wolf, regally clutching a two pronged stick in her hand. She raised the arm holding the stick and bellowed as loud as her tiny throat could manage.

“ATTACK! SEIZE! CONQUER!” Then she scratched her chin, “Whatever conquer means!” Nikki added as an afterthought. The beavers began to claw at the doors of the kitchen. Some realised there was a large window where the trays where piled to be served and started to climb it to enter the kitchen. Gwen began to howl with anger and fling beavers with a broom like the hungry undead. Beavers started to pile up at the kitchen door and claw at the weak metal. From the other side dents became visible.

Just as all hope seemed to be lost, the back door to the kitchen slammed open with a loud bang. The Quartermaster and David stood side by side now in the back of the kitchen, both clutching hunting rifles. Gwen continued to fend off beavers with a broom as she looked over her shoulder with a turbulent but thankful smile.

“Oh thank _god!_ ” She wailed. “Quick! Help me!” The Quartermaster shot into the fastest run he’d ever been caught doing and barrel rolled through the window, straight through a pile of beavers like a bowling ball. David followed shortly behind, skidding on his heels as he reached Gwen.

“Don’t thank god. I’m an atheist!” He grinned as he snatched the broom from her hands and shoved the rifle in her grip. She gave a mighty war cry and started hitting beavers with the butt of the rifle as David jumped on to the counter and slid over. He accidentally crushed a beaver with his feet when he landed and it squawked in surprise. He sheepishly smiled at it.

“Sorry!” David yelled as he ran through the crowd of beavers and began to sweep through them like he was parting the red seas, curling for Canada, and playing ice hockey all at the same time. Somehow he found a football helmet on his head and he began to make his way to the door of the Mess Hall.

When he reached the door through the sea of squawking beavers and gunshots, David produced a random bag of cat treats out of his vest and shook them loudly. All the beavers turned their heads toward him and chittered noisily. The gunshots ended. He grinned.

“Yeah? You want some treats?” David yelled. He leaned against the door, pushing it open slowly with his backside. “Come...and,” David tossed the bag into the outside, “GET IT!” He hollered. The crowd of beavers surged through the door, stampeding loudly.

That’s when David opened his eyes to the darkness of the cabin. Moonlight streamed through the nearby window and concentrated on the floor between his own bed and Gwen’s. Looking at her sleeping form under the blankets, through the darkness that made it hard to see but not to visualise the way she probably looked, the hours before came back to him.

All at once, David remembered his restless self staring into the nothingness of the open forest. Then talking to Gwen, her soft, cool, and small hand over his for a second. And finally, falling asleep somehow, he couldn’t remember. Maybe he had walked back to his bed. David knew he was a heavy sleeper once he actually got tired, but her carrying his limp form was a little unbelievable. The thought made his gaze travel back to her for a second before turning his body back to the ceiling and closing his eyes. He’d need all his energy tomorrow with the kids. Sleep was no bargain tonight.

As he busied his mind again, he stumbled upon the thought of Gwen still being awake when he fell asleep. He imagined, for a split second, a fond smile and the ghost of lips over his forehead.

David’s face burned, wondering why he had even thought that. He pushed the idea aside and forced himself to think about other topics. But the thought of her hand over his was the thing that drifted him to sleep in the end.


	7. Chapter 7

It’s been a little while since I updated this, and I’ve been writing and re writing new chapters, going back and realising I’m not happy with a chapter, a scene, or it seems or of order and unnecessarily complicated.  
So I wanted to ask if you readers would like it if I re wrote this to be more consistent, clear in plot, and more frequently updated/worked on (so long as my mental health holds up)

I think the answer is probably yes, so I’ll start working on it, although it may not come in to work before the next free episode of the show comes out, cause it seems to be about Jasper and I’d like any cannon info I can get.

I also wanted to ask how you guys felt about me adding a new character/characters in relationship to jasper and David and the rest of em. Like a little brother for David, and some siblings for Jasper (possibly fraternal twins)

Anyways, yeah! Till next time folks.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Update!

The episode with Jasper in it came out and it turns out it doesn’t do much for the story, so I can start re writing this y’all!

**Author's Note:**

> Any art done by "Wolvemir" in this fic was done by me.


End file.
